


Lions and Tigers

by byericacameron



Series: Canon AU [7]
Category: Cut & Run - Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-15
Updated: 2014-10-15
Packaged: 2018-02-21 07:23:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2459831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/byericacameron/pseuds/byericacameron
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nick and Kelly knew a visit to Zane's ranch in Texas would be interesting but the last thing they expected was tigers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lions and Tigers

The first day of the trip to Zane’s family ranch—and holy shit was that place huge—had been full of formalities and family. Kelly and Nick were here mainly as backup, both physically and emotionally, so that had been expected.

What Nick hadn’t expected was what Ty had announced the next morning.

“Want to come with me to visit my tigers?”

Nick blinked. “Your what?”

“Tigers,” Zane said with a smirk. “Plural. Barnum and Bailey.”

“You bought tigers?” Kelly almost bounced out of his seat.

Nick was not quite so thrilled. “Isn’t that the name of the one that got loose last year? And killed someone?”

Ty glared. “We don’t mention that. Especially in front of Barnum.”

“He didn’t get loose, he was catnapped,” Zane said, putting a hand on Ty’s shoulder to keep him calm. “And the guy he killed was about to kill Ty and trying to burn down my family’s house, so I tend not to feel too sorry for him.”

“Boy better have gotten a huge-ass steak for that. When do we get to go say hi?” Kelly was grinning like a maniac and Nick was getting a bad feeling about this visit.

“Now. C’mon, Meow Mix.” Zane grinned when Ty glared at him. “Let’s go play with your kitties.” 

Ty rolled his eyes, but Nick could tell he was suppressing a smile. “You are _so_  lucky you’re pretty, Lone Star.”

“Kels, promise me you won’t do something stupid and get yourself eaten,” Nick said as they followed Ty and Zane to the car. “I think we’re gonna have enough trouble keeping that idiot away from their teeth. Cats seem to find him irresistibly tasty.”

Kelly laughed, his grin growing. “I promise nothing. If you hear screaming, send in the doctor.”

“You  _are_  the doctor, moron!”

Kelly’s laugh turned into an evil cackle as he jumped into the back of Zane’s pickup.

“Seriously, Kels. No getting eaten when the only one of the four of us who could figure out how to stop you from bleeding out and becoming tiger chow.”

“If  _Ty_  has survived playtime, Irish, I’ll be fine.” Kelly winked and then tucked himself under Nick’s arm where he stayed for the entire drive to the sanctuary.

Nick had only recently learned about Kelly’s love of the American Southwest, but he would’ve figured it out in a second if he’d ever seen Kels in the area. Since they’d boarded the plane in Boston, Kelly had been almost as twitchy as Ty usually was. Jumpy. Hyper. Like the five-year-old everyone joked lived inside the guy’s head.

There was something in the air in Texas that acted like catnip on Kelly. Nick wasn’t sure if he should be more amused or terrified by that realization. Especially now that they were on their way to play with cats that could kill him.

The woman who met them at the front office of the Roaring Springs Sanctuary was obviously thrilled to see Ty and Zane—not surprising if Zane really had adopted two of their most expensive-to-maintain animals. She was equally pleased to meet Nick and Kelly, though, asking them questions about their involvement with animals of any breed or species and then getting off on a tangent when Kelly brought up his work at the camp. Nick smiled as he listened to them talk. Made sense that a woman who devoted her life to taking care of abandoned animals would empathize with a guy whose work revolved around helping abandoned kids.

Ty interrupted the conversation after a few minutes, bouncing impatiently. “Can we just get the key?”

“Oh! Sorry.” The woman laughed and ducked behind a counter to grab a lanyard with a key ring attached. “Barnum is going to be so happy to see you, Tyler!”

Smile turning sheepish, Ty shrugged, but his enthusiasm was obvious as he followed close on the woman’s heels. Zane didn’t bother suppressing his grin as he trailed his fiancé.

The entire sanctuary was a strange combination of cages and space, one wrapping around the other. Jaguars and tigers and even a few non-cat creatures prowled on either side of the path.

Kelly’s path meandered, bringing him as close to each cage as possible, even when the massive cats trapped inside threw themselves against the enclosing fence. Zane stayed in the middle of the path, his dark eyes taking in everything and—seemingly—reacting to little of it. Ty flinched every time the fences rattled, his hand always reaching for the gun he wasn’t wearing. Every would-be attack made Kelly’s smile brighter. He was laughing loud enough to be heard over the cats’ constant growls. Nick’s stomach jumped when a set of claws came precariously close to where Kelly’s fingers had been resting, but Doc always had been quick. He pulled away before any damage had been done. The close call did  _not_  bode well for the eventual need of medical attention.

Still, Nick couldn’t help smiling too seeing the easy joy Kelly took in, well, everything.

“That boy is not right in the head,” Ty muttered as Nick pulled even with him.

“Nah. But we’ve known that for a long time.”

They were quiet for a few steps and Nick wasn’t sure if he wanted to laugh or cry when he realized their paces had synchronized automatically. Had he matched Ty or had Ty matched him? Nick honestly had no idea. Either way, the observation bothered him, itching like an unreachable bug bite. Trying to keep the motion subtle, Nick rolled his shoulders and slowed his gait just a hair. For a second they fell out of time. Then Ty shifted his weight slightly and there they were again—a precision pair.

Fuck. It made it about ten times more aggravating that he didn’t know if Ty was acting on instinct and training or if he’d consciously noticed Nick’s switch and changed his own pace to match. The difference seemed minute, but it was important. Right now it was so important. And Nick had absolutely no way of figuring it out.

“Thanks for coming, Nick.” Ty’s words were quiet but sincere. More honest than Nick had heard from him in a long time. He wasn’t masking his emotions like he usually did, hiding his real thoughts behind a devilish smirk and a bring-it-on attitude. “I know we still…I don’t except miracles, Lucky, but you being here for this means a lot.”

Nick nodded, fighting the urge to raise his hand to his lips. Ty knew all his tells by now, the bastard. “You’re still a fucking asshole, Tyler.”

“Yeah, I know.” He tried to keep his expression solemn, but Nick caught the tic in his lip. “But you know all you need to do if you ever need anything is call, right?”

“Yeah, Ty. I know.” That had never been the question or the problem. What bit at his stomach every time he looked at Tyler Grady was something else entirely and not something he planning on letting himself dwell on today.

“Holy shit, Irish, look! Ocelots!” Kelly’s cry pulled Nick’s attention away from the conversation—he’d have to thank Kels for his impeccable timing later—but he shook his head when Kelly beckoned him closer to the caged enclosure.

“I can see them from here, Kels.”

“Pft. You’re no fun.” Kelly cast one more slightly longing glance at the, admittedly beautiful, small leopards. With several jogging strides, Kelly caught up with Nick and Ty, falling into line on Nick’s left-hand side. It took Kelly less than a step to fall into the same synchronous pace Ty and Nick had been walking. Nick snorted and dropped his arm around Kelly’s shoulders. Even that didn’t break their groove. Training kicking into gear all around, then.

The enclosure for Ty’s tigers was near the rear of the sanctuary, but they finally reached it and waited as the woman opened the outer gate to the tiger cage. It led to a little entryway with another securely locked door at the other end, presumably so the wild animals couldn’t bumrush you and make their escape while you were trying to lock up behind yourself.

“Go ahead and step up to the fence,” she said, pointing to a space of fencing just to the left of the main gate.

Nick followed her instructions, taking each step excruciatingly slowly, but as soon as he came within five feet of his enclosure, the tiger—Barnum? Bailey? Did it fucking matter?—growled. The noise was so low-pitched Nick felt it more than he heard it. It made the hairs on his neck stand up and sent goosebumps up across his skin. Moving just as slowly, Nick backed the hell off. Zane they seemed to tolerate but not love. Kelly got the same reaction as Nick, which pissed him off to no end.

Ty, Nick saw, couldn’t decide if he was more pleased by the tigers’ single-human devotion or upset that he couldn’t drag everyone into the cage with him. In the end, though, only Zane entered the dual-gated entry with Ty and the director.

“Well that fucking sucked,” Kelly grumbled as he and Nick watched from a short distance.

“You can’t seriously be pissed at the tigers for not liking you, Kels.”

But Kelly was standing there with his arms crossed and a slight frown on his face. “Maybe they smelled the horses on me?”

“We didn’t ride the horses today.”

“No, but I went to the stable after breakfast while you were in the shower.”

Nick raised his eyebrows. “You skipped out on joining me in the shower to go play with the ponies? Really, Kels?”

“Yes,” Kelly responded instantly, a slightly evil grin curving his lips.

“You’re lucky you’re fun to fuck, babe.”

Kelly laughed. “So are you, Irish.”

Kelly was still laughing when Nick kissed him. It was a mess of a kiss—not enough lips and way too many teeth—but it was Kelly and he was laughing and so it was still better than any kiss Nick had had with anyone else. Not that he’d admit that to Kelly anytime soon.  

“I’m sorry you didn’t get to go play with the overgrown furballs,” Nick said when he pulled away.

A little of Kelly’s disappointment showed up in those changeable eyes. “Me too. Maybe if I stand closer they’ll get used to my scent?”

Before Nick could answer, Kelly was striding toward the enclosure with a steady but determined gait, watching Ty get hugged—honest to fucking god  _hugged_ —by a 400 pound tiger. As novel as the experience might have been, Nick was kind of glad he and Kelly were on the far side of that particular fence.

Nick watched Ty play tag and tug of war with the beasts, laughing when one of the tigers closed his mouth around Ty’s wrist and tugged, landing Ty flat on his back. Well-trained reflexes or not, there are only so many things a guy can do when a tiger literally has you in its bite. He glanced for Kelly, hoping he’d seen Ty’s sprawl, but Nick couldn’t spot Kels anywhere. 

“God dammit, Kels,” Nick muttered, heading in the direction Kelly must have gone. Luckily, he didn’t have to do far. Around a corner of the enclosure and behind a wide outbuilding that must hold supplies of some sort, Nick found Kelly squatting next to another fence with his entire hand _inside_  the cage. The  _lion’s_ cage. Nick groaned. “Kels, please don’t end up bleeding before we leave.”

Kelly turned around, his already bright eyes lit up more than usual. “I want a lion, Irish.”

“Kels, no.”

“Yes! Irish, look at him!”

Nick  _was_  looking at him. The beast was immense and full of claws and teeth and power. And he was currently rubbing his nose against Kelly’s hand through the fence exactly like an overgrown housecat. He instantly imagined coming home to his boat, opening the door to the master suite, and finding fucking Mufasa sprawled on his bed. A shudder of horror rolled down Nick’s spine.

What in the ever-loving hell? Kelly couldn’t be serious.

“Kels, c’mon. A lion? With our schedules we wouldn’t even be able to take care of a kitten.”

“How come Ty gets  _two_  tigers and I can’t even play with  _one_  little lion.”

The lion was definitely not little.  “I didn’t get Ty the tigers so I couldn’t tell you.”

A kid wearing jeans, thick work boots, and a shirt with the Sanctuary’s logo on it came around the corner, stopping short when he spotted Nick and Kelly. He grinned and walked closer, placing the two huge buckets in his hands by the outbuilding.

“Hey. Are you guys with Agents Garrett and Grady?”

“Yeah. We—”

“Wondered if we could play with the lion,” Kelly said, turning his most enchantingly innocent smile on the kid.

Nick kind of hoped the guy would say no and he could drag Kelly out of reach of those teeth, but nope. The idiot laughed and reached for his keys. “I think he’d be upset if I  _didn’t_  let you in there.”

For the next hour Nick did his best to stay out of the way while Kelly had the time of his life playing with a supposedly ferocious predator who, apparently, had a thing for yoga balls. For the next hour, Nick, essentially, watched his boyfriend play some incredibly strange scoreless version of soccer with an overgrown cat.

Eventually, Ty, Zane, and the director came to collect them. Like Barnum and Bailey had been with Kelly, Kelly’s lion wanted nothing to do with Ty, a fact that made Kelly preen like a prize-winning parrot.

Kelly didn’t say anything else about wanting a lion of his own, but Nick saw the glances he cast over his shoulder as they left the area. And he saw the way Kelly’s lion paced the fence closest to the door, watching Kelly walk away.

If he picked up a brochure on the sanctuary and several business cards on the way through the office, no one else seemed to notice. It wasn’t like the plan to call the place when he got back to Boston was already laying itself out in his head and it  _definitely_  wasn’t as though he was picturing Kelly’s face when he showed him the adoption paperwork.

But, come on. Kelly’s birthday was coming up and he’d  _said_  he wanted a lion. 


End file.
